Mastering JavaScript Regular Expressions: Eliminating White Spaces Surrounding Specific Characters

Question

Mastering JavaScript Regular Expressions: Eliminating White Spaces Surrounding Specific Characters

It seems that I may be making a mistake as I found regex patterns to achieve the desired replacement in PHP and C#, but when trying to apply it in JavaScript, it is not working.

For example:

text ( 4 |-4 | 1 "test"  )  [ 0 50 90 ]

After cleaning, it should look like this:

text(4|-4|1 "test")[0 50 90]

In essence, I am aiming to remove all white spaces before and after brackets and the | symbol.

My current code attempts are:

        // remove whitespaces around brackets []
        text = text.replace(/\s*\[\s*(.*?)\s*]\s*/g, '[$1]');
        // remove whitespaces around brackets ()
        text = text.replace(/\s*\(\s*(.*?)\s*\)\s*/g, '($1)');
        // remove all whitespaces around | (unsuccessful attempt)
        // text = text.replace(/\s*\|\s*(.*?)\s*\|\s*/g, '|$1|');
        // text = text.replace(/\s*|\s*/, '$1');

This approach seems overly complex.

I would appreciate assistance in identifying the regex pattern for each symbol individually.

Instead of combining all replacements into one regex pattern, I prefer to learn by having one replacement per line.

javascript regex

Answer 1

Answer №1

Here is a solution that will work:

var sentence = 'text ( 4 |-4 | 1 "test"  )  [ 0 50 90 ]';
sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([|()[\]])\s*/g, '$1');

alert(sentence)

The above regex code searches for optional whitespace followed by certain characters in a capture group without any surrounding spaces, and then replaces the entire match with just the character, effectively eliminating the whitespace.

If you need to place each replacement on a separate line and only remove space characters while leaving other types of whitespace intact, you can try this approach:

var phrase = 'text ( 4 |-4 | 1 "test"  )  [ 0 50 90 ]';
phrase = phrase.replace(/ *([|]) */g, '$1')
               .replace(/ *([(]) */g, '$1')
               .replace(/ *([)]) */g, '$1')
               .replace(/ *([[]) */g, '$1')
               .replace(/ *([\]]) */g, '$1');

alert(phrase)

Alternatively, you can use a simpler version like this:

var text = 'text ( 4 |-4 | 1 "test"  )  [ 0 50 90 ]';
text = text.replace(/ *(|) */g, '$1')
           .replace(/ *(\() */g, '$1')
           .replace(/ *(\)) */g, '$1')
           .replace(/ *(\[) */g, '$1')
           .replace(/ *(\]) */g, '$1');

alert(text)

For single characters, using character classes might be unnecessary, but make sure to escape ()[] as shown in the last snippet.

Answer 2

Here is a solution that will work:

var sentence = 'text ( 4 |-4 | 1 "test"  )  [ 0 50 90 ]';
sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([|()[\]])\s*/g, '$1');

alert(sentence)

The above regex code searches for optional whitespace followed by certain characters in a capture group without any surrounding spaces, and then replaces the entire match with just the character, effectively eliminating the whitespace.

If you need to place each replacement on a separate line and only remove space characters while leaving other types of whitespace intact, you can try this approach:

var phrase = 'text ( 4 |-4 | 1 "test"  )  [ 0 50 90 ]';
phrase = phrase.replace(/ *([|]) */g, '$1')
               .replace(/ *([(]) */g, '$1')
               .replace(/ *([)]) */g, '$1')
               .replace(/ *([[]) */g, '$1')
               .replace(/ *([\]]) */g, '$1');

alert(phrase)

Alternatively, you can use a simpler version like this:

var text = 'text ( 4 |-4 | 1 "test"  )  [ 0 50 90 ]';
text = text.replace(/ *(|) */g, '$1')
           .replace(/ *(\() */g, '$1')
           .replace(/ *(\)) */g, '$1')
           .replace(/ *(\[) */g, '$1')
           .replace(/ *(\]) */g, '$1');

alert(text)

For single characters, using character classes might be unnecessary, but make sure to escape ()[] as shown in the last snippet.

Answer 3

Answer №2

To efficiently handle reserved characters, it is essential to escape them correctly. For instance, converting a single [ to \[ and so forth. The pipe symbol is another reserved character that requires the same treatment:

let sentence = "word ( 6 |-6 | 3 \"example\" ) [ 8 20 45 ]";
    sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([\(\)])\s*/g, '$1')); // eliminates the ()
    sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([\[\]])\s*/g, '$1')); // eliminates the []
    sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([\|])\s*/g, '$1'));   // eliminates the |

    // alternatively, remove all characters simultaneously
    sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([\(\)\[\]\|])\s*/g, '$1')

alert(sentence)

Answer 4

To efficiently handle reserved characters, it is essential to escape them correctly. For instance, converting a single [ to \[ and so forth. The pipe symbol is another reserved character that requires the same treatment:

let sentence = "word ( 6 |-6 | 3 \"example\" ) [ 8 20 45 ]";
    sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([\(\)])\s*/g, '$1')); // eliminates the ()
    sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([\[\]])\s*/g, '$1')); // eliminates the []
    sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([\|])\s*/g, '$1'));   // eliminates the |

    // alternatively, remove all characters simultaneously
    sentence = sentence.replace(/\s*([\(\)\[\]\|])\s*/g, '$1')

alert(sentence)

Mastering JavaScript Regular Expressions: Eliminating White Spaces Surrounding Specific Characters

Answer №1

Answer №2

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